Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Deutsche Bank Faces a Series of Damaging Lawsuits

Financial regulators have asked Deutsche Bank to disclose the total risk it faces from a number of lawsuits brought by investors in its products who lost money in the 2008 financial crisis, SPIEGEL has learned.

Authorities appear to be concerned about the many lawsuits pending against Germany's biggest bank. At a meeting with management board members of Deutsche Bank in New York in October, regulators from Germany, the US and Britain demanded that the bank submit a report on the open US lawsuits and the compensation claims linked to them.

The lawsuits are overshadowing the transition of power at Deutsche Bank from outgoing CEO Josef Ackermann to the two new co-chief executives, Indian-born Anshu Jain, the head of the investment banking division, and Jürgen Fitschen, the head of Germany operations, in the coming weeks.

The litigation includes a $1 billion claim from the US government which has filed a lawsuit alleging that Deutsche Bank and its subsidiary Mortgage IT wrongfully obtained state credit guarantees. In addition, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is suing the Frankfurt-based bank, as is the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association.

A further lawsuit has been brought by German lender IKB, which was rescued by German state-owned development bank KfW with a capital injection of €8 billion in 2007.

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